Still Running Off at the Keyboard

The Swedish Supreme Court has acquitted a Pentecostal pastor, the Rev Ake Green, of engaging in a hate speech during a verbal attack on lesbian and gay people made in a sermon.

He was threatened with a one-month prison sentence. Green told journalists he was now free to continue preaching as before, though the content f his address is regarded as hateful by many Christians and secular critics alike.

Said an unrepentant Mr Green: “This [ruling] means we can continue to speak the way we have, and … it feels very good that they have ruled in a way that our way of preaching should not be infringed.”

The judgment is based on a civil rights perspective which says that free speech should overrule offence and hurt to others, unless actual menace or harm is incited.

Continue reading...